Comments on: They Tried To Make Me Listen To Rehab, I Said, “No, No, No”

By: DocStrange

DocStrange — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 05:09:25 +0000

@Al Shipley: Yes.
Now, Vampire Weekend did well with "A-Punk" on the Modern Rock Tracks, and the Ting Tings are doing well too. Black Kids and The Whigs have been between #50 and #41 on the Mediabase Alternative Chart (which uses the same information) for months.
Of course, like it was pointed out. The only two stations in the format that I can get are freeform with their playlists (WBRU and WFNX. I consider myself lucky) but I still get things like Saving Abel or that song "The Stone" by that forgettably named band with the forgettably named dude from A Perfect Circle.

@2ironic4u: Well what do I to do? they're the only two stations I get in the format, so I must get a false sense of actual Alternative radio and it's national active rock skewing. WBRU must be immune to this because it's owned by Brown University (it's a commercially run station owned by a college. Such a beast does indeed exist)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:45:11 +0000

@How do I say this ... THROWDINI!: Actually, Indie 103.1's metal show is probably the best metal show on U.S. radio - that chick knows her stuff.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 03:22:40 +0000

@DocStrange: BRU still plays the mook rock along with the "indie" favorites.

By: How do I say this ... THROWDINI!

How do I say this ... THROWDINI! — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 03:21:01 +0000

@owenmeany: I knew 103.1 played it, but didn't realize they were the "US debut." I love Passport Approved. Hell, I love most of their once-a-week shows. Well, not the metal one, but that's just I don't generally like metal; I'm sure the show is fine.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:49:00 +0000

@How do I say this ... THROWDINI!: Indie 103.1 did indeed play DDIHC first in the U.S. on their import show "Passport Approved"

By: Al Shipley

Al Shipley — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:49:36 +0000

haha ok then let the suggestions rain in

By: Michaelangelo Matos

Michaelangelo Matos — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:59:18 +0000

@Al Shipley: YES YOU SHOULD

By: Al Shipley

Al Shipley — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:42:26 +0000

So should I be planning a column where I rate how well blog rock bands would do on non-Triple A alt-rock radio?

By: Defenestrated

Defenestrated — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:24:25 +0000

I saw this so called “bartender song” on youtube a while back and my friends and I all had a good laugh/cringe at it. I had no idea it was even close to charting that high (or at all).

By: Maura Johnston

Maura Johnston — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:12:03 +0000

@How do I say this ... THROWDINI!: yep!

[idolator.com]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:00:01 +0000

@DocStrange: Again, you're thinking of "Blog radio" not commercial modern rock radio.

By: DocStrange

DocStrange — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:11:19 +0000

@How do I say this ... THROWDINI!: Ah, so some west coast stations also gave some DDIHC love. But yes, this is also one of the weakest weeks in the Modern Rock Tracks' history. Only Death Cab, The Ting Tings, Beck and Flobots have good songs, with Ludo and The Kooks having OK songs. The rest is awful. I mean how "alternative" is Katy Perry? What the hell is Hinder doing on there? Is there any love for Tokyo Police Club, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, No Age or She & Him outside of a few clustered stations in the northeast?

By: Al Shipley

Al Shipley — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:31:01 +0000

@Chris Molanphy: Yeah, I know exactly what you mean with Staind, you just articulated way better than I did. I guess I downplayed the cross-format hugeness of "It's Been Awimoweh," but like you said, even when it hit #1 on Modern it didn't stay there as long as it did on Mainstream.

By: Chris Molanphy

Chris Molanphy — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:53:41 +0000

1. Thanks for correcting me (not that you were trying) on Weezer's streak at No. 1 (I had 10 weeks, not 11). Fixed it in last week's column.

2. Guess I'm alone on liking "Let It Die." I dunno, "The Pretender" kinda bored me -- I could see the hook, but it felt very paint-by-numbers to me. "Let It Die" is paint-by-numbers too, but I like that number: classic post-Pixies quiet-loud. What, predictable? Me?

3. I agree with you that Staind is consistently bigger on Mainstream than Modern, but that discounts their one moment of total rock-radio dominance: "It's Been Awhile," which owned the top of both charts for months - Modern for a then-record 16 weeks, Mainstream for a near-record 20 weeks. (It's in second place for longevity on both charts behind "The Pretender" and "Kryptonite," respectively.) My only point is, Staind seems to be a band that can be huge on Modern when their songs push the right kinds of Sad Bastard/post-grunge buttons -- it just varies song-to-song.

By: How do I say this ... THROWDINI!

How do I say this ... THROWDINI! — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:22:46 +0000

@DocStrange: I'm pretty sure that Indie 103.1 in LA played DDIHC (I love that band name, its not only a name, but a public service announcement), as I can't think of how else I would have heard "I Love You Cause I Have To" and picked up the album. Of course, they never played it on KROQ. God forbid I don't hear RHCP "Hey Yo" for the 500th time.

(Also, I seem to remember someone listing DDIHC in that post a few weeks back where people listed the best albums for every year they've been alive post. Maura maybe?)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:10:58 +0000

@The Van Buren Boys: It's probably due to the fact that there really isn't a such thing as a "hit rock single" anymore due to severe media fragmentation.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:09:51 +0000

@DocStrange: BRU and FNX both cater to a small but dedicated niche audience. If BCN in Boston picked up Dogs Die In Hot Cars, you probably wouldn't see the same thing.

I'm all for indie/blog bands getting radio love but, most of the time, there's a reason why most of our beloved blog-bands only cater to a small audience.

By: DocStrange

DocStrange — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:52:43 +0000

@2ironic4u: Yes. Yes I do. Only two radio stations picked up on DDIHC: WFNX Boston and WBRU Providence (both of them played "I Love You Cause I Have To" and to a lesser extent "Godhopping" and both located in my general area) and they were big and even played a concert for WBRU. However these are kind of the standard devients of the format: both are very experimental and more open in how they construct their playlists and are probably two of the finest radio stations on the East Coast.

By: The Van Buren Boys

The Van Buren Boys — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:49:02 +0000

It’s reading articles like this that make me so happy that I don’t have to drive anymore and therefore don’t listen to the radio. It’s amazing just how stuck in the 90s rock radio is. Does anyone know if the demographics for rock radio listeners has shifted older since the 90s or if younger listeners really are clamoring for a constant barrage of 90s-style rock music?

By: DocStrange

DocStrange — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:48:23 +0000

Oh btw, there's a difference between Sittin at a Bar and Santeria: Santeria is actually a good song.

The other weird thing is that "Song 2" by Blur gets alot of plays. Probably because it's short and heavy. Which is sad because it's unrepresentative of the band's otherwise brilliant catalog.